Common Core has it's problems, but the idea of a national standard is ideal. It's not good for someone in a rural area learning something far behind the inner cities of California for example.

And the problems you're referring to was addressed in Congresses Every Child Succeeds Act. enacted in Dec 2015. States can now set the requirements for their tests. I think a mix of the two is the right direction to go.

Did you get your degree in Norwegian Folk Art or what?

I'm fine with private schools but vouchers should not exist.

I went to public schools in ARIZONA until 8th grade. I was then accepted on full scholarship to a private here. Now I've ben accepted to a private college on 100% financial aid. I've seen both sides and gone through the systems as someone applying to schools in poverty. From my personal experience, the public system needs to go and my state's stats support this argument. However, I'll openly admit that I don't know much about rural communities across the nation and from my understanding the East Coast has awful charters but great publics which I've never experienced.

Strongly disagree

psychology , so ya pretty much


wow , drag my Texan ass

Is this a myth or does private schools not really challenge people? I had family members go to private schools, and it seems like they get "passes" if you know what I mean.

Like with testing and stuff for public schools, it challenges you more rather than the private schools where they are allowed to do what they want when it comes to graduation requirements.

I had school projects, community service hours, had to have a certain ACT score, certain EOC score. My cousin didn't have to have any of that when she graduated from a private school.

Idk, I appreciate the Every Child act but I still think that the government has overstepped its bounds with Common Core. History and science are nearly nonexistent whereas mathematics is a joke, in elementary education. I can see how a set of standards would be desirable, but it needs to be balanced out.

But it's also not appropriate to standardize these things to the extent that we limit a teacher's ability to adapt to the needs of each student, or their collective students, or changing social concepts. It's not okay to change the methods so quickly and radically that not only can parents no longer help their children achieve excellence in school and love it, but also such that active students are learning completely different systems for which they are unprepared the year after learning traditional things.

Common core is based on research into what methods work best on average, what things have the greatest statistical chance to work with the human brain. What it is unfortunately not designed to do is help students who aren't that typical, or seamlessly transition from old methods to new.

I have always been passionate about education - my education, my mind, and the opportunities given to me by brilliant teachers are at the core of my being. So to see common core failing in many egregious ways, and to see its implementation process become so disastrous - that's been hard.

I'm a state ranked "mathlete," an exemplary student in extracurriculars and in classes, and yet I can't even help my 13 year old brother with his homework. The teacher can't appropriately adapt concepts to him, either, and that's a problem because what common core is trying to do isn't working for him. He's lucky to scrape by with a C- in the subject.

It's just not doing what it wants to do, what its designed to do. And we can't ignore results like this in favor of theory, intent, and design.

So the art-oriented kid should receive the same education as the sports-oriented kid as the science-oriented kid? Charters give these people schools directed towards their interests. That's why charters like BASIS and Arizona School for the Arts are able to thrive so well alongside one another. With a public system, everyone is forced into the same environment that prevents kids from fully pursuing their interests.

Absolutely not.

I attended private school from Kindergarten through 8th grade, then transferred to public school for high school. My experience in public school was a lot better (for me). My school district had plenty of vocational courses that you can take to see what fields interested you for either collegiate study or careers immediately following high school. My private school didn't offer that. Further, most of the people I went to school with in high school could not afford a private education. This is ridiculous. We need to make sure that our public school systems are better, not eradicate them. If we do that, then we will have kids that can't attend school. If you want to stop that, then we will give out waivers for those students and it would be paid for by taxes and it wouldn't correct anything. It would just make families that can't get waivers struggle to send their children through school.

Public schools must remain open, private schools should also stay options in case people prefer to opt out of the public school option.

This is why charters are so important! You get the private level of education, with smaller classes and more personalized teaching styles but for free because it's government funded!

Very true about the universities...

I will say this. I do not like Common Core's PARCC testing. You can get Part A right, but if you get Part B of the question (the explanation part) wrong the whole problem then becomes wrong. I think that's a bit much. It should be a split score, but other than that I think the testing is much more challenging for students than the easy testing we use to have. But I'm from Louisiana so it may be different for other states which is now why I can see why it should be a state issue on that front.

I went to public school and didn't have any required service hours or scores. It's a place-by-place issue rather than one of private vs. public, and most private institutions actually have a reputation for being tougher (hence why they can even be private and charge a good amount for their services).

Why not switch the publics to charters though? Sorry for using the same school companies over and over again but they're the only ones I know as an Arizonan - but BASIS and Great Hearts have proven that publicly-funded charters are an amazing alternative to publics. They maintain all the great aspects of publics while being able to customize the educational experience.